A Start to an End
by tales of woe
Summary: When Carlisle finds a girl at the bottom of a mountainHe doesn't know how she is alive. But she is now damaged in another way, and maybe she needs Edward to save her. AU, cos it's my crazy little spin off story. My first fanfic, please read.
1. Chapter 1

**A Start to an End**

_A Twilight fan fiction written by _

_Based off the characters and story written by Stephenie Meyer._

It was a place where some ambitious climbers sometimes came but was otherwise deserted. Huge mountains dominated the surroundings. It was a good thing, because it allowed Carlisle to hunt in peace. As he was about to head back home, there was a scream from somewhere in the distance. He sped to the site; a huge slab of rock, with a pitiful heap of ropes and tangled limbs at the bottom of it. A high pitched keening came from the shattered human. Something about the pink hair told him it was a girl.

As he hurried towards her, she stirred, and he increased his speed. It was essential that she didn't move, as she could easily have a spinal injury. But he reached her, and she moaned something garbled, that sounded like, 'leg'. Then she passed out. A quick examination told him that somehow she was almost undamaged, except for her right leg which hung limp and frail as he carried her to the house in the woods.

'Edward!' Carlisle called. 'Come help.'

A blur arrived at his feet and gasped. 'Dad, who is that?'

'I have no idea Edward, but come and help me, like I said before!' snapped Carlisle. At home, he realised that most of the bones in her leg seemed to be totally and messily broken, several ligaments torn and ruptured, and the patella was shattered. One thing was clear; she would never walk again. What wasn't so clear was how on earth her leg was so damaged, and the rest of her body unscathed but for a few bruises. As he was absorbed in thought, he suddenly heard her move again. She groaned, and he gave her a shot of morphine.

'What was that, where am I, and who the hell are you?' she asked sharply.

'I'm Dr Carlisle Cullen. You fell off the side of a cliff. That was morphine, because your leg-' But he was cut off there, because she cried out, 'My leg?'

'Yes, your leg is shattered. I don't think I can fix it. I wouldn't know where to start. We'll need to contact a hospital, family-' Edward, who had been very quiet, broke in, 'She doesn't care about anything but her leg. She's trying to shield herself from you asking her too many questions. Because she's in shock. She's a dancer, and you've just told her she'll never walk again.'

She stared at him in disbelief. 'That's quite creepy. How do you know all that?'

' Oops. Sorry Dad.'

**A/N: What do you think? This story is inspired by someone I know, but it's somehow mutated into something that I thought might make a half decent twilight fanfic. By the way, this story is set in England, purely because I'm English and know nothing about America's geography!**


	2. Chapter 2

Carlisle looked a bit helpless. 'Well…Edward is… I mean, he can…well, we are sort of…'

'Vampires,' said Edward. 'And I can read minds.'

'Well yes, that was what I was trying to say.'

'And I knew that,' said the girl. 'But how come you can read minds? Harry never could.'

The silence that this statement generated was so absolute that even a human could have heard a pin drop. Then both men asked simultaneously, 'Who's Harry?'

'Does it even matter? It doesn't to me. You say you can't fix my leg. Are you sure?' She looked up at them with a desperate look in her eyes.

'Yes. I'm sure, and I'm so sorry. What happened?'

'Well, I gave up dancing a year ago. I was just…I needed a break from it, I was pushing myself too hard, people were worrying. But it's never been in my nature to take a break. I've been into extreme sports for the past year. I thought I'd come here and do a bit of climbing, abseiling…but the rope broke. And now I can't dance, even if I wanted to. And I do, so, so much-' her voice cracked, and she couldn't go on. But then Edward came over and sat next to her, his ice cold body a pillar for her to hold. As her sobbing quieted, he asked her gently, 'What's your name?'

'Leila.' She was starting to open her mouth again when a pale streak with a mop of hair burst in and yelled, 'Carlisle, I saw- Oops. Too late.'

'Hello Alice,' said Edward wearily. 'Yes, this is Leila. Leila, this is Alice. She sees the future, and she's worried she's exposed our existence to you. Luckily, that isn't a problem, since you already seem to know about us. And I'm still wondering how. Also, how are you blocking your mind from me?'

She flinched away from him. 'That's not important. I told you, and I don't want to talk about him. And I don't know why you can't hear my thoughts anymore, but I don't want you to hear them anyway, especially because I sense you're not used to asking the questions.'

'Touché, Miss Leila,' said Alice gleefully. 'I am gonna like you. Now, Carlisle, I know you won't be able to fix her leg, but if you splint it up and strap the knee she should be able to get around, some of the bones, will heal, and you can do surgery on the ligaments. She will eventually be able to walk with a limp.' She saw Leila's confused expression, and added, 'I saw it in a vision. Now, carry on Carlisle, because I want to get my hands on your hair! It's fabulous!' Edward laughed, and even Leila managed a weak smile.

'OK, and I know that as a vampire you will be good at keyhole surgery, but are you sure that the blood won't…well. You know.' Carlisle smiled.

'Don't worry. I've been working in hospitals for hundreds of years. You're in no danger.'

'Good. But before you put me under the anaesthetic, I want you to understand something.' She took out her mobile phone and brought up a video clip. 'This is a clip that my friend recorded of me in the studio one day. This is who I used to be.' She clicked play, and they all watched.

She floated around the studio, barely seeming to touch the ground. The emotions and control that she displayed were amazing. Alice gasped. 'You were bleeding through your shoes!' But at that moment, the dance ended, and onscreen she floated over to her friend. 'I think that was quite good, wasn't it? Obviously the back in that final sequence was terrible, I need to work on that, but otherwise I only need to perfect a few things. Now I need my phone back, I'm going to bandage my toes and go home for an hour, and then I can work with the director…End of Video Clip.'

'You think that that wasn't already perfection?' asked Alice incredulously. 'You were more graceful than me on a good day! You were bleeding and you didn't show pain! No wonder you're upset.'

'A dancer masters her body. Her body doesn't conquer her. Well, usually. I think this injury is the only thing that could stop me.'

They all left, except for Carlisle. He worked through all the parts of her leg until he had mended the major injuries. He put metal pins in her bones and reattached her ligaments, and finally sewed it all up. Then he waited for her to come around. Alice came back as she stirred.

'Leila,' said Carlisle, 'I want you to put some weight on that leg. It will be painful, but I think you can handle it. Alice, help her down?' Leila awkwardly swung down, with Alice holding her, and put stepped forward. She staggered, and her face twisted, but she straightened up. Then she took another step. She looked up at everyone else. 'It's ok. I'm fine. See?' She took another step and nearly fell over, before Alice caught her.

'Ok, that's enough proving things for today. You know what I'm happy about now?'

'No,' said Leila. 'What?'

'A: I can play with your hair now. B: I had a vision of us going shopping while you were being operated on, and C: I finally found someone who's the same height as me! Look!' Edward laughed. As Alice held Leila up next to her, they looked like a pair of pixie twins, only Leila's hair was a different colour.

'4 foot 10, natch,' grinned Leila.

'I'll try to get you some crutches at the hospital,' called Carlisle, as they all filed out, Edward carrying Leila.


	3. Chapter 3

'Alice darling…'

'Yes?' trilled Alice sweetly.

'I'm not sure, but I really think there's only so many ways to style a pixie cut. Also, my hair is pink. And it's been like that for a full week. I'm getting bored of that. So, do you want to look in my backpack?'

Alice went and dug around in the slightly squashed backpack, pulling out a couple of bottles.

'Which ones are they?' said Leila.

'Well that one's brown, and- OMIGOD, we have to use the orange one!'

'Ok, sure. Whatever. I was brown a month ago anyway. But you have to let me do yours as well.'

'It might not work, you know,' said Alice somberly. 'The dye might not work on vampire hair.'

'We can but try!' chirped Leila.

1 hour later

'Aargh!' yelled Edward. 'What the hell? You are the NEON pixie twins now! My eyes can't handle the pain!'

Leila rolled her eyes. 'Get used to it Eddie boy, my hair changes every week.'

'Why?' asked Edward, genuinely interested.

'I don't like looking the same. And…you know, if you're tiny, elfin and walk really gracefully, people tend to notice you.'

'And your strategy to get people to ignore you is to dye your hair like a slush puppy,' Edward deadpanned.

'Nah, more like a diversion. If your hair is insane, people look at you less as that cute little chick with the pretty hair, and more like, whoa, there goes that nutcase with the insane hair. It works for me.' Leila looked embarrassed.

'I think it's time for us to go and have girl time!' said Alice, covering the awkward moment.

'Problem is, I can't do the stuff I usually do,' remarked Leila. 'I mean, usually I'm stretching, running, climbing, jumping off mountains, whatever. I don't really know what to do now.'

Edward frowned. 'Well, what would you be if you weren't a dancer? Maybe this is a chance to do something you couldn't before.'

'I guess if I hadn't been a dancer I'd have gone to medical school.'

'Well, I've been there twice!' laughed Edward. 'Helps Carlisle to keep up with new procedures and so on. We could probably get you into medical school.'

'There's plenty of time for that when all this,' she gestured at her leg, 'is off. Anyway, I'm gonna need physio. I know about physio. It'll take up a lot of time, too much to start school right now. How old are you, by the way?'

This was such a disconnected question that Alice and Edward stared. Edward spoke first. 'You know, usually I can follow people's thought processes-'

She laughed. 'Just another thing you'll have to get used to, Eddie boy. I have very rapid thought processes, probably something to do with my IQ. Now, answer the question, please? I really want to know.'

Edward sighed. '89.'

Alice grinned. 'About 80-something.'

'Cool. It's fun you not being able to hear my thoughts, except if I want you to. Hey, listen.' she concentrated, and Edward recoiled.

'Please shut up!' Leila laughed. 'This Is The Way to Amarillo,' she explained to Alice.

'Excellent. Usually I sing 'Barbie Girl' in my head when I'm thinking something private!' giggled Alice.

'Honestly Alice, usually when you're thinking some thing private I don't want to know,' sighed Edward. 'It's usually something about Jasper.'

'Speaking of Jasper…' Alice trailed off.

'Yes,' Edward agreed, 'we'd better warn him that there's a human in the house before he comes in and gets taken by surprise. She smells really good.'

'Well I'll know when he's coming,' said Alice. 'And so will you. You can go ahead and tell everyone.'

'Everyone?' asked Leila.

'Jasper, Emmett, Rosalie, Esme. Esme is married to Carlisle, Rose is married to Emmett, and Jasper is all miney-miney-mine. But he hasn't been living off animals for very long, so his control isn't as good. Just don't do anything to unnecessarily provoke him, he'll be fine. They've all gone on a trip to check out the surrounding area. We've never been in England before, but this place is perfect! It rains all the time!'

Leila laughed. 'Come on then, give me the tour. I've never been here either.'

'Ooh, I can try out my new baby. She goes up to 200, you know!' squealed Alice.

'Fine, but not on the first outing. It's a pity, but motorbikes used to be my thing. I can't ride one now. Ah well, maybe when this all comes off I can ride it to med school!' She winked.

Just as they were about to leave, Alice's face went blank and she paused. 'We've got to go, Leila. Now.'


	4. Chapter 4

'Shit,' said Alice, eloquently. She grabbed Leila and ran with her out the door, just in time. A minute later, four vampires arrived at the door. One of them was holding another in a tight grip.

'Hello Jasper, Emmett, Rose, Esme. Nice to see you were quicker on the uptake than usual Emmett,' said Edward.

'I'm ok Emmett!' said Jasper, annoyed with himself. 'It was just…a shock…why was there a human in the house?'

'Her name is Leila, she fell off a cliff. Alice ran out with her a minute ago.'

'She fell off a cliff and didn't die? Nice. She sounds like my kinda person,' grinned Emmett. Edward rolled his eyes.

'Doesn't take much to impress you, does it?' he said sarcastically. Emmett shrugged. This time Rosalie rolled her eyes.

'Is she, like, gonna be staying with us?'

'Probably, yes,' said Edward levelly. 'Why? Does that bother you?'

'I'm thinking of Jasper,' she said unconvincingly. 'How is he gonna cope with having a human around all the time?'

'Thanks!' said Jasper, annoyed again.

'I'm sure he can cope, Rose,' said Emmett. 'Now, do we get to meet the cliff diving superstar?'

'Hello!' squealed Alice. 'I'm bringing Leila in. Where did I drop her crutches?' She darted towards them and then disappeared back through the door. 'What did she do to her hair!?' asked Jasper, astounded.

'No idea, bro,' said Emmett.

Leila hobbled in. 'Hi everyone. Sorry about that. And sorry about the hair, but you have to get used to it if I'm staying.'

'Hi!' Emmett bounded forward and hugged her. 'God, are you shorter than Alice? Wow.'

'Same actually. You must be Emmett.'

'How'd you guess?'

'Alice told me you were the big one. And that's Jasper…sorry Jasper, I cut myself when Alice took me out, that couldn't have been easy. And that's the beautiful Rosalie, who I'm pretty sure is not gonna let me loose on her hair…and lastly, Esme. Thank you for letting me stay, Esme.' She smiled.

'That's all right dear, but I have to tell you that it's been a long time since I've cooked anything!' She laughed. Now Rosalie was smiling too, pleased with the compliment. 'Smooth moves, Leila,' muttered Alice in her ear. 'You got Rose on your side, that has to be good.'

**A/N: There you go! Sorry it's short. I know that last chapter was a bit of a cliff**


	5. Chapter 5

-1** 3 months later**

'Let's go outside,' Leila said.

'Why?' asked Alice.

'I've got to do something! I can't sit on my ass all day! You have no idea how frustrating this is!'

'Well, you should be getting used to it. It's been a while.' Alice pointed out reasonably.

'Why didn't Carlisle just change me when he first met me?' Silence.

'You know, I'm never getting used to that,' remarked Emmett affably.

'Used to what?'

'You suddenly jumping to a random subject! Your brain is too complicated!' moaned Emmett.

'Stop avoiding the question,' said Leila. 'Why?'

'Because Carlisle would never do that to someone who had another option,' said Edward. 'Rosalie, Esme and Emmett were all dying when he changed them. Jasper and Alice were changed by other people.' Leila nodded.

'I see, so if I had broken my back when I fell, I would be a vampire now?

'Probably,' said Alice.

'I was almost changed before, you know,' she remarked casually.

All the vampires gaped at her.

'Huh?' said Emmett, expressing the feelings of the other two. No one seemed to know what to say. There was no suitable reply that any of them could make. Then Rosalie walked in.

'God, let a girl get a word in edgewise, retards,' she said sarcastically. ' I cannot believe how stupid you're being. You are passing up an opportunity to find out stuff!' She addressed Leila. 'Who almost changed you?'

'Henry Vallastas. My vampire boyfriend.'

'Whoa whoa whoa,' said Alice, reeling. 'This is Henry? He was your boyfriend? Why didn't you tell us this? I've never even heard of him.' Leila started to cry.

'He died, ok? I don't want to talk-'

'But you need to!' said Alice. 'What happened?'

'We were in Volterra…he wanted to show it to me, vampire history and all that…I was his singer. He had to control himself so tightly when I was around, you have no idea. But he loved me, so he was willing to do it for me.

'When we got there there was a horrible accident. I got cut badly and he lost it. He attacked me, he would have killed me if the Volturi hadn't turned up. One of them-an ancient one- sucked out the venom. Then they disposed of him. He had revealed the presence of vampires for a split second and the punishment was death.'

There was nothing to say. Alice hugged her and took her upstairs. Rosie rolled her eyes and followed, muttering to Emmett not to put his foot in it.

'I would offer to do your hair, but, you know…' her voice trailed off.


	6. Chapter 6

Leila got up and winced as ever as she moved her leg. She got up. It had been 6months now, she didn't have to use the crutches any more, but she had a stick. She limped over to where it stood- and crumpled, passing out and banging her head.

Jasper found her there in seconds. 'I could smell something dead,' said Jasper.

'You were right,' said Carlisle grimly. The muscle in her leg is dying. It's releasing poison throughout her system which is now killing her. Even if there was any cure, it's already reached her brain. I have to change her.'

'I'm getting out then,' said Jasper. 'No offence, but I already went through that once. You couldn't do anything to make me experience it again when I didn't have to.'

'Fair enough,' said Carlisle. By then everyone had gathered round, watching. Carlisle bit into her jugular vein, and then started on all the other major veins and arteries. 'That should speed up the process a bit. Now, get ready for some screaming shortly.' At that moment, Leila gasped, and arched her head back. They all braced themselves, but she just gasped, then gritted her teeth.

'Can you hear me Leila?' asked Edward. She nodded. 'This is the change. Carlisle had to do it, your leg died.' He was wondering how he could communicate with her when she was in so much pain, when suddenly it was like something clicked and he heard her voice in his head. _'You do the talking, I'll do the thinking, Eddie boy. Is it supposed to feel like you're being burnt alive?'_

'Yes,' he said aloud. 'But most people scream when they get burnt alive, you know.'

'_I'm not most people. But if it gets any worse, or carries on like this for about an hour longer, don't worry, you'll get a normal reaction.'_

'Well then, I expect some kind of sound in…about a minute.'

'_Fuck,' _she thought, and Edward grinned. 'You know, I'm counting down seconds now…this is gonna be your last coherent thought as a human. Any last words?'

'_Bugger off, you bastard,' _she thought, as hard as she could.

'Well that's not very nice,' he said. Just then she yelled. 'Yup, this is gonna last a while.'

**3 days later**

'_I proved you wrong sucker,' _thought Leila.

Edward turned from the window. 'What?' And just then a crescendo of agony was ripped from her ravaged throat. He rushed over and held her down. 'Some help here!' he yelled. She was struggling like a wildcat, and the bloodlust combined with the fact that she was a newborn meant that he was losing the fight. Emmett and Jasper pounded up the stairs and pinned her. 'Come on, we've got to get her to somewhere there's prey,' he yelled. They managed to drag her to the forest, and let her loose when they found animals.

She moved like a lightning bolt, massacring a herd of deer in seconds. The reason returned to her eyes.

'Sheesh, that was bad,' she said. 'Feels good now though.'

'Ha, don't you feel it?' asked Edward. 'The ache in your throat, like there's something missing?'

'Yeah, but that's nothing. I know what that is anyways, it's because we are designed to feed on human blood.'

Suddenly she tensed. 'Hold me back, please. Quickly!' They all grabbed her, because they had all smelt the same thing; a human coming their way.


	7. Chapter 7

Leila tensed in anticipation. She knew all about the thirst for human blood, better than most vampires. From instincts long buried inside her, she identified the smell as a human. She braced herself, waiting for her rational mind to completely disappear, but to her surprise felt detached. She could feel the lust for blood growing stronger with every second, but her body wasn't being affected.

'That's weird,' said Leila, Jasper and Emmett at the same time. Leila felt everyone's grip on her loosen. Everyone, that is, except Edward. His grip was tightening, and turning round she could see that he was about to snap. In a sudden role reversal, she put him in a full nelson, using her newborn strength to keep him there as he began to struggle.

'Come on, we have to get him away from here you morons!' she yelled at the two boys, who looked shell-shocked.

'What? Edward…huh?' said Emmett, summing up all of their feelings in a very succinct way.

'For God's sake! Help me here!'

Between the three of them they managed to drag Edward back to the house. They forced him into a chair, where he sat looking as bemused as the rest of them felt.

'What the hell just happened?' demanded Leila. 'I thought I was supposed to be the one with the uncontrollable bloodlust, but suddenly you're in a half nelson and the sun is shining down on me. Can someone explain here? Or is Edward going to sit there like a bemused goldfish until the Carlisle gets back from his shift at the hospital? Where's Alice?'

'Well, the transformation obviously hasn't made her lose that sweet little brain process thing,' muttered Emmett.

'I don't see explanations pouring out of _your_ ears, idiot, so shut up,' shrieked Leila.

'Calm her down Jasper,' croaked Edward.

'Don't bother, I'm fine,' said Leila, more calmly. 'Just remember that I was going through unbearable pain an hour ago and now I'm being weirded out. Give me a break!'

'I don't think the whole med school thing is going to be a problem,' said Jasper. 'It would seem that you brought your amazing control of your body into this life. It must have been your strongest trait.'

'Ooh, I have a little idea, if that theory is correct,' Leila said excitedly. 'Someone bring me a book that I definitely won't have read before!'

Edward went up to his room and pulled out a huge tome about necrosis and gangrene, from his days as a med student. As soon as he brought it into the room, Leila's eyes went wide.

'Ow,' she said. 'Did the book have to be so big?'

'I'm confused!' said Emmett piteously. 'What's happening?'

'Did you never notice when I was hurt that I read my way through every damn book in this house in under a month?' Leila asked.

'Yeah, it was scary.'

'Well, it looks like I've got another power,' she commented. 'As soon as I saw that book, it was like everything in it went into my head. Like it was stored on a bookshelf in my brain. And it was quite painful having a book like that rammed into my head.'

'This is not fair,' complained Emmett. How come you get to be a genius and you don't have to suffer through the first years like a normal vampire?'

Leila snorted. 'Emmett, normal vampire is clearly an oxymoron.'

'Don't think that using fancy words is going to make me feel any better. While we wait for Carlisle, do you want to wrestle?'

'Sure, I'll kick your butt.'

'You're on.'

An hour later, when Leila and Emmett had finally finished arguing over who was better at fighting, Alice arrived home. She dumped her bag in the hall and flew up the stairs.

'Listen Leila, I'm so sorry that I couldn't be here, but I had a vision of you and you were all guilty because of something you did to me during the transformation so I thought I'd better go and omigod wht did I miss?'

'You can't fool me Alice, you already know everything.'

'Fine, but I wanted to see how you would put it. Carlisle is going to be here in ten, you better work out how you're going to tell him.'

'Love you Alice.'

'Welcome to the family.'


End file.
